Source: Nick Chill Photography

Well folks, the long, tropical, volcano-lit dusk of Tiki Month is at last over. The sun peeks up over the eastern horizon, and the spirits of the Tiki Gods flee their hand-carved wooden totems.

Reality intrudes….

I think this has been my best Tiki Month to date. Although the Tiki Month 2012 page link will disappear sometime tomorrow from the header, it will still be available, and you can look back over everything I wrote this time through there. But I thought I’d do a little roundup of everything I posted, so you can see what you might have missed and want to look for.

I did eleven drink posts, from the sublime to the ridiculous. I had a great time talking with Ed Hamilton, the hero of American Tiki fans who brought us back Lemon Hart 151. I really started to get into the whole Tiki mug thing this year, alas for my wallet.

I also managed to gin up some almost controversy over Beachbum Berry’s comment about Tiki and “guilt-free sex“.

I had a full-on, dress-up Tiki party in my temporarily Tiki Basement Bar. My kids loved the makeover at first, but they now want it restored to normal conditions. They like to hang out down there and it is hard to read by “volcano light”.

I spent a good bit of time navel gazing here at the end on why I did the first Tiki Month, and more importantly, why I keep doing it.

And of course, the blog highlight of the month was Mixology Monday LXIV: Tiki! Thanks once more to all the bloggers and other writers who contributed the more than 40 pieces to February’s carnival. And yes, I hijacked MxMo for my own purposes. I think it worked out well for all.

The most important thing to me about this year’s Tiki Month was all the buy-in and participation I got from so many of you. There were vast opportunities to employ Rule 2 as blogger after blogger hopped on the Tiki Month bus and made their own contributions on their own blogs. I linked every post I saw, if I missed yours, please let me know. Beyond that, I got lots of comments this month. Comments are like nectar for bloggers, folks. When we get them, pro or con, we know you are paying attention. We all need to comment more. This month I got tons of feedback and it really kept me going. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to average just over a post a day, not counting sideblogs. It wasn’t easy, but the attention people were paying made it so.

Aloha everybody. I hope you come party with me again next February, but I also hope you stick around and keep reading here the rest of the year!

Exit Question: What do I drink tomorrow night, Old-Fashioneds or Manhattans?

Dr. Funk is back in play. If I’ve managed nothing else this Tiki Month, I at least have people talking about Dr. Funk once more!

Hear that? It’s drums, in the distance…. And there is a deeper rumbling in the direction of the mountain. The Earth itself trembles. A red glow lights the night sky. The Tiki Gods stir, and the natives feel restless.

Are they angry?
The volcano gods, I mean, not the natives.

Oh, I’m not sure that they are angry, at least not yet. Perhaps they just have demands. Yes, that’s it, demands.

So if those demands aren’t satisfied,
then they will be angry?

Yes!
And don’t make us angry…

See?
You wouldn’t like us when we are angry.

Yikes!
Um, Doug? Do something!

Oh, I wouldn’t worry. They seem like OK guys to me.

That’s easy for you to say!
You’re not the one stuck here inside your head this blog with “Volcano Hulk”!

OK, OK.
Oh, Tiki Gods! What makes you restless? What do you want?

Virgins?

Why is it always virgins with you?

We like virgins.

Um, I’ll see what we have….

Hey!
Don’t Look at me!

Yeah. She won’t do.
I took care of that long ago!{Smirk}

You?!
Oh, that’s funny.

What?
Now wait a minute!

Hey! This little reminder post is going off the rails. Back to the sock drawer and work this out, you two.
And you Tiki Gods, we are fresh out of virgins around here. What else can we do for you?

Your sacrifices to us all this month have served only to whet our appetites. If you won’t give us virgins, then you must give us many more drinks… and maybe some snacks… or fine rainment… and perhaps some sacramental vessels!
Just celebrate Tiki, dammit, all across the land. Or we will cover it with lava!
BWAHAHAHAHA!

It’s Mixology Monday: Tiki, tomorrow, February 20th, folks! Don’t forget to notify me as a reply to this post, or to the original announcement post, or in an email where to find what you’ve written on or before Monday. I’ll have the roundup up Tuesday, Tiki Gods willing.
Write about what you want to appease the Tiki Gods: Drinks (of course it’s mostly about the drinks), Mugs, Shirts, Decor, and Food.
See you tomorrow!

Drink: Vicious Virgin #2
Glass: TikiTini, Green
Available at Amazon

Behold the Vicious Virgin, No.2! Virginia (if I may call her that) illustrates three things about Tiki drinks.

First, just because a drink is blue, doesn’t mean it is bad. The somewhat sinister aquamarine of this cocktail is fully in keeping with its name and its character. Like so many cocktail ingredients, Blue Curaçao isn’t evil, what people sometimes do with it is.

Second, tequila really is an appropriate liquor to use in Tiki. I’ve largely avoided it in previous Tiki Months because, well, the Pinky Gonzalez never called me to make it again, and Margaritas are not, never have been, and never will be Tiki drinks, no matter how many of them joints like Cheeseburger in Paradise put on their “Tiki Bar Menus“. But the PeguWife has been ordering a lot of tequila-based cocktails when out on the town lately, so I thought I’d give a second look at tequila in Tiki.

Lastly, awesome names like Vicious Virgin make it worth ordering almost any drink at least once. And when the awesome name is attached to a good drink like this one, it makes repeat ordering all the better.

I first noticed this drink in a thread on TikiCentral. I recommend reading it because it shows that the current incarnation of Don the Beachcomber’s still goes to the trouble of making secret mixes that they don’t even share with their own bartenders, just like Donn did in the old days. Tradition rules.

As for how good this drink is… The PeguWife views the my endless parade of new, weird drinks in Februarys with (usually) good-natured tolerance. She polished off two of these babies and pondered another. The Vicious Virgin goes in the rotation for whenever there is grapefruit juice, Tiki Month or not.

{This recipe can be found in Beach Bum Berry Remixed but not in Beachbum Berry’s Tiki+ app. Let’s have an update, Bum!}

Monday, February 20th, 2012 will be the 64th Mixology Monday. I’ll be hosting it here at the Pegu Blog, and since February is Tiki Month in these parts, We’ve decided that the theme shall be TIKI!

The Tiki scene, like classic cocktails in general, is reviving nicely these days. The lush, decadent marriage of tropical flavors and exotic kitsch carries us away to a better, less dreary place. Please join in and add your words, images, and offerings to the Tiki Gods on the 20th. Since Tiki is more than just the drinks, feel free to post on whatever Tiki subject floats your outrigger canoe. I suspect most of you will want to offer up delectable drinks, but feel free to wax eloquent on aloha shirts, exotica music, decor, garnishes, food or whatever else moves you to enter the Tiki spirit!

As with most Mixology Mondays, the procedure is easy:

• Write up your exotic journey and post it to your blog or on eGullet, etc., on or before February 20th, 2012.
• If you are currently blogless, drop me a line, and I’ll set you up an author account and you can post your offering to the gods right here. If you don’t want to figure out how, you can even email me the text and pictures, if any, and I’ll post it. But please do it early!
• Be sure to include a link back to this post, and to the Mixology Monday site. Also include the regular MxMo logo, or you can use this thumbnail-sized version of the MxMo: Tiki logo at the top of this post. (You can steal the full-sized pic above if you like, too)
• When your post is done, add a comment to this post right here and/or email me the link at D o u g (at) C o c k t a i l c a p e r s . c o m.
• Check back to the home page here after a day or so to see all the glorious results.

Aloha, Y’all!

It’s time once again folks!
February 2011 will be the third annual Tiki Month, here at the Pegu Blog.

So kick on some Martin Denny on the Hi-Fi, don an Aloha shirt, and raise a glass with me against this.

I had intended last year’s Tiki Month to be a one-off event, a singular opportunity to explore one of cocktailia’s most treasured niches. But as things get colder and more grumpy around here, with no vacation in sight, I find I have no choice. Light the torches, sound the drums, don the flowered short, and let’s get our Tiki on!
Throughout February (with a few detours into regular cocktailia as needed), I’ll be exploring the ineffable phenomenon that is Tiki. We’ll look at recipes (of course), personalities (old and new), apparel, and paraphernalia. Load up on fruit, lay in the rum, and come with me on a voyage through the warm southern waters of the mythical Pacifibbean.
There will be dancing girls.

Let’s try another recipe from Trader Vic’s Tiki Party, shall we?
Here we go:

This is a decent little low-ball cocktail. Given all the Mai Tai mania that has gripped the cocktailosphere lately, it should be apparent to many of you that this is essentially the Trader’s take on a Mai Tai with tequila. The Pinky Gonzales is certainly sweet, but it’s not sticky or cloying. There are a lot of flavors here and they open up in your mouth as you sip, with that tequila bite showing up on the back end. It is very clean on the mouth afterwards, which is an odd feature of a lot of tequila drinks. Tequila has that funk that announces itself in no uncertain terms, but that funk also seems to clear the decks behind it. Of course, tequila will clear the decks cognitively too, if you let it.

I’ll throw in a word or two here about the tequila I used, Inocente. This triple-distilled white tequila is one of the gentlest tequila’s I’ve ever encountered. If you like the funky background in Margaritas, but stay away from other tequila cocktails because of the severely in your face character of the spirit, Inocente is a damn good tequila to broaden your horizons with. If you intend to do some shots, and want to make sure your crowd will go for a second round, Inocente is a very smooth choice that should scare off the minimum number of drinkers. If the softness of the liquor is not sufficient incentive, you can tell them that the company claims that the triple distillation process reduces the hangover-inducing contaminants.
If you are a serious connoisseur of tequila, you may find Inocente a bit bland, or over-processed. That’s OK, no liquor should be all things to all people, or we’d have no need for all this wonderful variety we have.
As a final note, the bottle they use is gorgeous, and deserves a spot on your display shelf. When I finish this bottle, I’ll be reusing it in-house, either on the bar for infusions, or in the bath for homemade bath unguents. Reduce—Reuse—Recyle!

So how does the Pinky Gonzales compare to its progenitor? Is it better than a classic Mai Tai? Hush your mouth! It lacks the melded depth of the Mai Tai, probably because tequila lacks the depth of old or mixed rums. I considered that this might be put down to the Inocente’s purity, but I imagine that if you used a more full-flavored (more impurity-laden?) tequila, you would get less meld more than more depth. Overall, the drink is still a nice little diversion. I’ll probably make it again for myself at some point, and I’ll certainly keep its recipe on hand in the event a guest wants something with tequila and it’s a Tiki night.
And there are some other more general things to discuss about Tiki that the Pinky Gonzales illustrates.
I had never thought of the spent lime halves I produce so many of these days (shut up, Gabe!) as having any use beyond clogging the disposal. Yet, this was only the first of many drinks I’ve run across which employs the lime shell as a proposed garnish. It works surprisingly well. A lot of Tiki garnishes seem a bit of a waste of good ingredients, but this one is essentially free. Reduce—Reuse—Recycle! See? Wouldn’t Al Gore be proud? I’ll bet that Pinky Gonzaleses are all they serve at his house….
Finally, I gotta talk about the name: Pinky Gonzales. It’s… well, it’s a bit stupid really. And I’m sure it’s politically incorrect. (Maybe the staff doesn’t serve these at Chez Gore.) BOTI member Dr. Bamboo examined the whiff of blasphemous that appealed to stuffed-shirt WASPs of the old days. Perhaps the tinge of politically incorrect that pervades most of Tiki (not just the Pinky Gonzales) is part of the resurgent appeal of Tiki today. Political religions aside, the name is silly. And lots of Tiki Drinks have silly names, e.g. Doctor Funk of Tahiti, The Colonel’s Big Opu, and The Zombie. Before the month is out, I’m going to come up with one decent Tiki drink of my own and give it a completely ridiculous name….

If it wasn’t Tiki Month round these parts, I would not have made this cocktail… ever. Just take a single look at the Jet Pilot’s recipe and the tiki-ness will practically poke your eyes out. It’s got wads of liquors in it, multiple juices, and stuff that I either don’t like (Pernod), or don’t know what the hell it is (Falernum).
Oh, and it’s a blender drink. I do not do blender drinks. Well, Doug the Pegu Blogger doesn’t do blender drinks. For Tiki month, my trusty but dusty blender is getting twenty-eight days of continuous counter time.
So, why is this rather baroque drink my first deployment of said blender? Well, I’ve read about it several times in the past from BOTI members Dr. Bamboo and Kaiser Penguin, as well as one of my very favorite bloggers, Robert Heugel, who I’m glad to see back blogging a bit more. He writes great stuff, but apparently he has some side project that has been pushing aside important stuff like blogging….
The Kaiser seemed to like the Jet Pilot so much that he forgot to go ape-sh*t with the garnish, so it has to be good.
Finally, Dr. Bamboo really caught my eye with this illustration:

Ah ha!
So you just made this drink in order to rip off more of Doc’s awesome pictures, didn’t you?

I resent that. It’s not true, and besides, it’s on the Internet so it’s free, right?
Actually, I did have the Jet Pilot on my list, but I only remembered to try it after thinking about a certain very level-headed jet pilot who has been in the news lately. (The following tape may or may not be completely accurate….)

I sailed down to the Pegu Tiki Lounge with the recipe clutched in my hot little hand and immediately realized that I was going to have to exercise some calm improvisation myself if I wanted to drink this right away. I had not made up any cinnamon syrup yet, and I was missing, well, all three rums in this concoction. Here’s my recipe, along with what it supposedly should have in parenthesis.

There is a lot to talk about with this drink.

1. It is really delicious.
2. It is a prime example of Tiki-ness in that it shows how amazingly well some very different flavors will blend together. The result is a drink where all sorts of flavors seem to actually line up in orderly fashion for a chance to entertain you. Each sip goes through about three or four distinct taste profiles, and they are all in harmony.
3. The Jet Pilot was Robert’s MxMo: Limit One entry; if you plan on mixing two, alert the authorities.
4. If you don’t have the cinnamon syrup already made, and divert to the powdered cinnamon, you have to drink this fairly quickly, or the cinnamon will precipitate out.
5. There is not enough ice, and you don’t blend it long enough, to get what I expected in a blender drink. Instead you get a frothy, slushy layer on top that you sip the cocktail through. From pictures and descriptions, I think this is what I will get with a lot of classic Tiki presentations. Whether you like this or not is a matter of taste. I found it very pleasant, the PeguWife was less enchanted. This summer, I think I’ll try upping the ice content considerably and go for the Fat Tuesdays plastic cup filled from a slurpee machine texture. If you hear about a case of spontaneous human combustion and odd, carved wooden idols seen fleeing the scene, you’ll know what happened.

Tiki Month is a lot of fun, folks. Stick with me. And join me in lifting a Jet Pilot up to Cap’n Sully.